Adam “Always Online” Orth no longer employed at Microsoft

Sources say mocking Twitter comments have led to his resignation—or termination.

With a public Twitter account comes great responsibility—a good rule of thumb is that you shouldn't tweet anything your mother or your boss would object to seeing. According to GameInformer, Microsoft Creative Director Adam Orth's tone-deaf comments regarding his inability to understand why rumors of an always-connected Xbox were causing some customers angst have led to his becoming former Microsoft Creative Director Adam Orth.

It's not known at this point whether Orth resigned from his position voluntarily or was fired (or was given the option to resign in lieu of termination), but the change appears to have occurred within the past day. GameInformer's attempts to reach Orth for comment via Microsoft's main number have been unsuccessful, lending additional credence to news of his departure.

Orth drew withering fire late last week with a series of tweets mocking potential customers who have issues with numerous rumors that Microsoft's next-generation console will require a constant connection to the Internet to play games (including single-player titles) and will boot players out of their game if their connection to the Internet is interrupted for more than a few minutes. The creative director let loose with a barrage of comments which were interpreted by most (including this author) as either uncaring or outright mocking, such as this one:

Twitter

The offending tweets were part of a conversation between Orth and BioWare developer Manveer Heir. Heir asked a number of valid questions—like, what if you live in a rural area with spotty Internet access, like Janesville, WI or Blacksburg, VA?

Orth's response: "Why on earth would I live there?"

Heir later attempted to explain the conversation as two friends just joshing each other ("You should know we are good friends who joke around with one another"), but at that point the damage had been well and truly done. Orth's comments—already championing the unpopular opinion that an always-online console was a perfectly fine thing and that anyone who didn't agree needed to "deal with it"—went classically viral. Orth even found his Twitter avatar featured in an ever-expanding set of images, highlighting his apparent deafness to criticism.

Orth appeared totally unprepared for the violent backlash his comments received and quickly set his Twitter account to private. He also appears to have deleted his LinkedIn account two days ago.

Microsoft previously released a statement via Community Manager Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, which apologized for Orth's "inappropriate comments" but didn't do much to confirm or dismiss the rumors about the next-gen Xbox. Microsoft has not yet issued a statement on Orth's resignation or termination.

The new Xbox—with or without an always-online requirement—will be formally revealed on May 21st.

Lee Hutchinson / Lee is the Senior Reviews Editor at Ars and is responsible for the product news and reviews section. He also knows stuff about enterprise storage, security, and manned space flight. Lee is based in Houston, TX.